City Hall to Explain Youth Agency Cuts

Threatened with a subpoena by the City Council, the Giuliani administration promised yesterday to give the Council records of the procedures it used in deciding to cut off funds to 146 community organizations that offer youth programs.

During a hearing by the Council's Youth Committee, Victor L. Robles, a Brooklyn Councilman who heads the committee, said he had sought the documents from the Department of Youth Services for nearly a month to no avail. He added that he had prepared to issue subpoenas yesterday to administration officials, including Deputy Mayor Ninfa Segarra, until Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani intervened, asking Speaker Peter F. Vallone to wait another week and promising to provide all requested data.

Speaker Vallone, speaking angrily at the hearing, said the administration had an obligation to provide the information and accused the staff within the agency of deliberately denying the Council the documents. "I believe that unbeknownst to the Mayor and commissioner, there may have been deliberate attempts to withhold documents from this Council," Mr. Vallone said.

The Speaker added he would pursue not only the subpoenas, but also "other actions, including possible criminal action, if that is necessary," if the officials in the agency failed to provide the requested documents. He said he and Mr. Robles decided against issuing the subpoenas only after Mr. Giuliani, in a personal plea, asked him to give the administration more time.

In the most recent of several controversies to hit the Youth Services agency, Council members have complained that many reputable groups that had provided youth services for years were dropped by the city. Officials of many community groups said that they faced the prospect of closing their doors without their contracts from the city.

In a news conference yesterday, Mr. Giuliani said that he had instructed the agency's new Commissioner, Alfred B. Curtis Jr., to provide all documents possible on the issue. "Al Curtis has no desire to keep any documents from the City Council that the City Council is entitled to see," the Mayor said. "They are voluminous documents. In some cases these contracts are still being written."

He said of the threat of subpoenas: "There is just no reason to do that."

The Youth Services agency has been under fire for several months. One commissioner, the Rev. John E. Brandon, resigned in May amid questions about his tax returns and the department went for months without a new head. The Giuliani administration also claimed that the agency overspent its budget by overextending its commitments, largely under the Dinkins administration.

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Some Council members yesterday blamed Ms. Segarra for continuing the disarray at the agency. They said that she unofficially ran the agency for several months before Mr. Giuliani named a new commissioner. And they charged that some of changes in who got funds were politically motivated, aimed at hurting parts of the city that did not widely support the Mayor in last year's campaign.

City Council staff members testified that community groups in Manhattan had suffered most, saying that 62 percent of the groups that had been dropped by the city were in that borough.

But officials of the agency, testifying before the committee, said that the changes reflected a shift in policy on how contracts were awarded. They said the new policy took into account the strength of the proposals submitted by the community organizations rather than the groups' histories.

Mr. Giuliani said that he was seeking state funds to help some of the community organizations that were dropped by the Youth Services agency. "We're trying to get bridge funding to keep some of the programs that appear to have been worthy programs alive and functioning," the Mayor said. He did not specify how much money he was seeking.

In the hearing, Council finance staff members testified that once all bills were paid, the agency would not be likely to have a deficit for the last fiscal year, but rather about $2.5 million in surplus.

But Mr. Giuliani maintained that the agency would record a deficit for the last fiscal year, which ended on June 30. "There are people who believe there is no deficit," he said. "There is a deficit. But the deficit has been reduced."

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A version of this article appears in print on October 7, 1994, on Page B00003 of the National edition with the headline: City Hall to Explain Youth Agency Cuts. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe